Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, has described the former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, as a president in cage.
In the interview in Zero Tolerance, an in-house publication of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Soyinka claimed that Jonathan was unaware of certain raging national issues until he brought them to his attention.
In the interview with Zero Tolerance magazine, he related his experiences with former president, Dr Jonathan, to establish his claim of a presidency in hostage.
In the interview in Zero Tolerance current edition, Soyinka painted Jonathan as a president in cage.
He claimed Jonathan was unaware of certain raging national issues until he brought them to his attention.
When asked if the former president was caged, he said “there were forces around Jonathan, which he himself did not understand and that is why I stressed that you’ve got to choose your circles of advisers very carefully when you are in charge. He was caged; things were going on that he did not know about.”
Soyinka, who claimed to visit Jonathan twice before he vacated office, said on one occasion, he asked the former president what he was doing to curtail his wife, Patience, who during the presidential campaign was indulging in hate speech.
The Nobel laureate was, however, silent on Jonathan’s response.
According to him, “on a lighter note, I asked him, ‘what are you doing about madam’ because that one seems to be embarrassing the nation as usual. You go to a section of the country and tell your supporters to stone those who campaign for change and you insult another part of the nation by calling them those who produce children that they cannot look after. That woman should be charged for incitement chaos. It is incredible that she is allowed to run loose.”
Asked what Mr Jonathan’s reply was, Soyinka said “I am not going to tell his response. But I am free to tell you what I said. It will be an abuse of privilege if I tell you his response.”
Buttressing his claim that Jonathan was oblivious of some happenings around him while in office, Soyinka recalled the telephone saga with the King of Morocco, stating that he was the one that told the president about it when they met.
According to him, “I will tell you one interesting aspect of what we discussed. I will reveal to you that Jonathan did not know that the nation had been compromised so badly in this telephone thing with the King of Morocco. I was the one who told him when we met over an issue and I said to him, ‘by the way, how is the King of Morocco? Jonathan didn’t know what I was talking about.
“When I mentioned the telephone issue, he thought I was talking about his campaign for AfDB managing director for which he was lobbying other heads of states. He said ‘I haven’t spoken to him in a long time’ and I said, ‘no, you spoke to him a few days ago.’ He said, ‘no, I intend to speak with him. I even asked my foreign ministry to link me up with him, because I am campaigning for a candidate but I haven’t spoken to the king of Morocco.’ Then I said to him, ‘you better go and read the newspapers of last week.’ And I can tell you he did not know.
“So you can imagine that the president did not know that a scandal had developed that involved a withdrawal of an ambassador!”
He also said “how can a public figure, an intelligent person like that come out to tell the public that corruption is not stealing?”
Soyinka said he maintained a cordial relationship with Jonathan during his tenure, despite some attacks he felt compelled to launch on the former Nigerian leader and his wife.
According to him, at some point, the former president was tending towards fascism.
When asked why he withdrew his support from the former president, he said “we marched in order to protect the constitution, not the person of Jonathan. We retained a cordial relationship during his tenure. However, despite some attacks I felt compelled to launch on him – and his wife. Jonathan committed some truly alarming errors of governance. He was propelling himself towards outright fascism.”
